• What exactly is graphology or handwriting analysis?

Graphology or handwriting analysis is the art of determining character from handwriting. Whether you are filling out an application, writing a grocery list, or signing a check, keep this in mind. Your handwriting bears the unique imprint of your personality, with all its strengths and weaknesses for all the world to see. It is as if in an unconscious way, you are giving the world a window to your deepest self. To be sure, handwriting analysis does neither foretell the future, nor does it reveal the past. But, it can give you an insight into the person you are. It can also help you to gain an understanding and insight into the personality of other people, especially those close to you. Today, graphology has many uses, from working with learning disadvantaged children to employee screening or helping people find the most compatible mate. Graphology answers questions that can start individuals on the way to greater self-understanding. It gives them feedback to who they really are and how others see them. It can also suggest ways to reduce tension, handle stress more successfolly, and reach greater self-actualization and folfillment. *Deep, Dark Personality Secrets Revealed in Seconds!*

• Wouldn't it be great if you could spot a liar instantly? Or know all about someone's sex drive before the first date?

Well if you have ever wanted to quickly and accurately discover someone's true personality, then handwriting analysis is your golden key to better relationships, greater success and immense personal growth.
At the conclusion of this seminar, you will be able to use handwriting analysis to:

• Predict compatibility in love
• Be the center of attention at parties
• Notice 5 "danger signs" in prospective business partners or lovers
• Help people improve themselves
• Break the ice with strangers and make new friends
• Quickly assess issues of trust, intimacy and honesty.

Bart Baggett, one of the world's leading handwriting experts, is the author of five books published worldwide, including Handwriting Analysis 101 and Success Secrets of the Rich and Happy.

• What is handwriting analysis?

It is a scientific method of identifying, evaluating, and understanding a person's personality via the strokes and patterns revealed by his handwriting. It is not document examining, which is when a person examines a sample of writing to determine the author. Document examining is often used in forgery cases. In document examining, no comment of character or personality is derived from the handwriting.

• Do the terms graphology, handwriting analysis, and Graphoanalysis mean the same thing?

Not in America. Although, graphology and handwriting analysis have been used for centuries to describe evaluating personality through the study of handwriting, a few distinctions have arisen in the past 50 years.

• The term handwriting analysis is the umbrella term that describes all forms and theories about understanding character from handwriting.
• The term Graphoanalysis is a trademarked term that refers to the scientific American form of handwriting analysis pioneered by Milton Bunker. Although these trait stroke methods taught by Bunker are not different from what dozens of authors around the world have published in the past 50 years, the term Graphoanalyst is used to distinguish those people who choose to associate with the company that holds the trademark.
• Also, the term graphology has come to symbolize an affiliation with the more holistic or Gestalt approach to handwriting analysis.

Some graphologists disregard the trait-stroke method completely. Most experienced analysts agree that combining the many schools of thought gives the analyst the most flexibility and resources that resolt in a more accurate personality assessment.

• What can be told about a person from his handwriting?

Handwriting reveals hundreds of elements of the person's "personality and character," which include glimpses into the subconscious mind, emotional responsiveness, intellect, energy, fears and defenses, motivations, imagination, integrity, aptitudes, and even sex drives and issues of trust. There are over 100 individual traits revealed and an unlimited number of combinations.

• What can one NOT tell from handwriting analysis?

It cannot identify age, gender, race, religion, whether a person is right- or left-handed, or the future.

• How does handwriting reveal personality?

Handwriting is often referred to as "brain writing." Research scientists in the fields of neuro-science have categorized neuro-muscular movement tendencies as they are correlated with specific observable personality traits. Each personality trait is represented by a neurological brain pattern. Each neurological brain pattern produces a unique neuro-muscular movement that is the same for every person who has that personality trait. When writing, these tiny movements occur unconsciously. Each written movement or stroke reveals a specific personality trait. Handwriting analysts identify these strokes as they appear in handwriting and describe the corresponding personality trait. Handwriting is like body language, but is more specific and is frozen for a more detailed analysis of our unconscious movements.

• How accurate is handwriting analysis?

It is only as accurate as the analyst is talented. Most professionals claim to be 85-95% accurate. Compared to other personality assessment tools and tests, handwriting analysis is sometimes more accurate and much more revealing. When answering psychological questions in person or on paper, a person may consciously or unconsciously answer according to how he thinks he should answer rather than giving an honest reply. The clinical research is divided as to the validity of handwriting analysis. Again, it depends on who you ask.

• How old is handwriting analysis?

Research has found references to handwriting analysis as far back as 4500 BC. In 99 AD, the Roman historian Suetonius studied Emperor Augustus' personality from his handwriting. The first handwriting analysis book was published in 1622 by Camildo Baldo. Most pioneering research was performed before 1929 in Europe. The modern scientific method of analyzing individual strokes in handwriting began in 1915 by Milton Bunker.

• Is handwriting analysis a science or an art?

It is a clinical science. The Library of Congress categorized it as a credible social science in 1981. It is not a hard science like chemistry. It falls under the same category as psychology.

• Who uses handwriting analysis?

Anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of themselves and others:

• Individuals for self-improvement: they gain a better understanding of themselves and often incorporate aspects of grapho-therapy to change bad habits.
• Single people to aid in the selection of compatible partners.
• Couples to improve current relationships through better understanding and communication.
• All people of all ages in the work force for career counseling.
• Employers for personnel selection.
• The courts for forgery and questioned documents.
• Attorneys to aid the jury selection process.
• Law enforcement in investigating evidence involving handwritten notes.
• Businesses for credit rating assistance.
• Psychologists for personality evaluation and therapy.

• What about people who print?

It is a generality, but worth answering. People who print have put up a barrier to keep the world from getting to know them. They do not easily express their inner-most feelings. People who print take longer to experience intimacy and tend to have a strong external protective mental shell that is often seen as confidence.
It is estimated that over half of men in the United States prefer to print rather than write cursive. This is the same tendency that says "I'd rather sit here in pain rather than express my feelings." Some men learn at an early age to keep their insecure feelings hidden from the world. And yes, they do often have to print because of their messy handwriting, but the answer still applies. The answer is quite simple. "Never trust a printer!"
No, I'm just kidding. Printers could be the most ethical or the most treacherous people; but, the writing doesn't give us enough information to be totally sure which one they are. Printing is basically utlra "masculine" or "tough exterior". It is the YANG of the YIN/YANG in eastern philosophy.
Even some women block print; but those women are tough and strong. People who block print do so because they reveal less of themselves to the world. Upstrokes reveal the emotional outlay of a person and are essential in capturing an accurate personality picture via handwriting. Block printing is only downstrokes. Therefore, the amount of quality information one can glean from a printer is much less than from a cursive sample. Hiding emotions is not always a negative trait. However, most printers do not possess the tendency to have "intimacy" and the highest level of communication skills in the context of relationships. They will tell you they 'print' because it is just faster. Well, it is faster to 'not' talk about your feelings, too.
Printers can be complicated and might not reveal as much about their feelings as their lover might want them to. Our courses focus on cursive writing, because it reveals so much more about the person.

• What about people who have a combination of both printing and cursive?

People that mix and match both cursive and print are quite normal. It indicates a tendency to be in a hurry and be flexible given unusual circumstances. Too much printing - or block printing - indicates a barrier to intimacy and inability to express feelings. Mixing printing and cursive really isn't an unusual event. In fact, it is so common that taken by itself, it's meaning is not terribly significant. We must look at the rest of the writing.

• Why does my handwriting change from day to day?

Certain strokes represent emotions and moods. As your feelings and moods change from minute to minute, those corresponding particular strokes will change. However, the basic character-defining traits will remain the same. And, if you "really" have a total variation in handwriting styles, you are one moody person and should cut down on the sugar snacks.

• What can be told from a person's signature?

The signature represents what a person wants the world to see or what he wants to be, an image that may or may not be the same as the inner self. Because a signature contains only a few letters, it does not provide enough information for the analyst to make a complete and accurate evaluation.

• My signature is illegible. What does that mean?

It means people have a hard time reading your name. Seriously, illegible handwriting can mean a number of things. In general, an illegible signature reveals a desire to be seen but not known, keeping things private. You may want to keep your true identity hidden. It could also mean you are in a hurry. People who continually sign their name all day long often do so in a hurry and, therefore, don't care what their signature looks like. Illegible handwriting in combination with other specific traits may indicate dishonesty, but there are a lot of variables.

• Why is my signature different than how I write everything else?

Because the signature is a badge to the world. It is a representation of what a person wants the world to see about himself. A signature that is different from the rest of his writing says he does not want to reveal everything about himself. There may be some aspect of his personality that he wants to hide, so he creates a new "person" by creating a signature with a different look.

• Do you analyze the writing of a left-handed person the same as a right-handed person?

Yes. Whether a person writes with the right or left hand, the traits revealed will be the same. Even people that have learned to write with their mouth or foot, due to amputations of their limbs, reveal the same information from their "brain writing."

• Why do left-handed people slant their letters backwards?

The question contains an invalid presupposition... not all left-handed people slant backwards. Although many left-handed people have a leftward slant to their writing, it is not because they are left-handed. Many right-handed people have writing that slants to the left, and many left-handed people slant their writing to the right. Handwriting that slants to the left, or backward, indicates a person who does not readily express his feelings. He keeps his emotions hidden and reacts to the world around him in a reserved and logical manner. People who have experienced a traumatic event in their life or a severe illness often pull their handwriting to the left because they turn their thoughts and feelings inward.
Often, left-handed people experience emotional pain because they feel "different" being in a world that is primarily right-handed. Teachers or parents may have tried to force them to write with their right hand which produced emotional trauma that caused them to turn inward resulting in a leftward slant in their handwriting.

• Are there "good" and "bad" traits?

Traits are neither "good" nor "bad" in themselves. They just "are." Our judgment of whether or not the trait is useful in a given situation makes us label these traits "good" or "bad." However, each trait can have both negative and positive features depending on how the trait manifests itself in behavior as it combines with other aspects of one's personality. Handwriting analysis does not judge or label. It serves to identify and understand aspects of personality and behavior.

• Is handwriting analysis an invasion of privacy?

No, but it could make someone feel a little naked. Seriously, the Supreme Court, in 1977, "United States v. Sydney Rosinsky" (FRP249), ruled: "What someone's handwriting looks like is considered public information -- similar to, for example, how someone dresses or their body language, and the psychological analysis that can be extracted from the information is not considered an invasion of privacy."

• How prevalent is handwriting analysis in companies for employee screening?

Since the outlawing of the lie detector test (polygraph machine) as a prospective employee screening tool in the United States in 1988, the use of handwriting analysis has been on the rise as part of the hiring process. Although the US has been slower than Europe to accept handwriting analysis, it is now growing in popularity by major corporations. In France, Spain, Holland and Israel, approximately 80% of companies use handwriting analysis for analyzing potential employees according to a 1988 report by "The Wall Street Journal." Research in England shows that approximately 7.9% of English companies use handwriting analysis.

• Can handwriting reveal a person's honesty?

There is no single trait that indicates honesty. However, there are several traits that, when present in certain combinations with each other and with other traits, can give us clues about a person's integrity. There are also traits that indicate talkativeness, secretiveness, and deceit. As anyone who has ever been to court will testify, ethics are a very subjective thing, so the trait of "honesty" has many factors that it depends upon.

• Can you tell if a person is a criminal by his handwriting?

No, by definition a person isn't a criminal until he has been convicted of a crime. A combination of certain traits can warn of possible criminal tendencies, but handwriting cannot reveal whether a person has or will commit a crime. You can make an educated guess about the person's likelihood to obey the rules, become gullible, aggressive, or even steal... but you can't be definitive about his criminal bent.

• Why don't people write the way they were taught in elementary school?

Some people do, just look at your local third grade teacher. As children grow and mature, their handwriting changes and becomes a unique representation of their individual personality characteristics. The more a person's writing varies from the model they were taught, the more their morals and attitudes move away from the conventional model of the world they were taught as kids.

• Is handwriting analysis the same for all languages?

It depends on the alphabet. The strokes that are relevant in a Latin-based language are well researched and widely taught. Therefore, all Latin-based languages such as English, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. are fair game. However, many languages have completely different alphabets and, therefore, different analysis techniques. We can analyse also the devnagari script and writing but the the detail analysis may not be possible .

• Can I really change my personality by changing my handwriting?

Grapho-Therapy is one of the most modern and effective behavioral modification tools available today. It works for two reasons. First, neuro-muscular connections have a direct impact on the neuro-pathways to the brain that hold patterns of behavior. Secondly, it gives the subject a clear and visual representation of the change she is making on a daily basis... reinforcing the belief system and cementing the change in behavior consciously and unconsciously.

• I have a tendency to imitate other peoples' handwriting. What does this mean?

It could mean you admire and model other people... a good trait as long as you pick good people to model... make sure they don't have any hell traits

• If I see writing on a daily basis which is uniform and attractive, I mimic the style. Does this show a lack of personal style?

Not necessarily a lack of personal style, but the attraction to uniform and attractive writing reveals a need for security, possible conservative tendency, and maybe even an "anal retentive" need for control and perfectionism.
After copying a style for a while, I can also mimic signatures. I wouldn't say they're perfect, but they do greatly resemble one another. As far as the signatures go... it will be useful in forging documents... at least you're not a criminal...

• Do police departments use the services of certified handwriting analysts?

Police Departments use forensics specialists to determine the true identity of ransom notes and other hand written evidence. They hire or use in-house trained document examiners In many homicide cases and FBI cases such as cases involving serial killers, a handwriting analyst is hired to help establish the psychological profile of the suspect if handwriting is available. The FBI has people on their staff for this purpose, with special criminal science background.

• Are handwriting analysts used by corporations when there is a theft and they are trying to find the culprit?

Yes, but not always. You have to have a relationship with the head of security because it is also highly secretive.

• Are writing samples taken from each employee?

Yes, usually from the applications.

• Is there ample work for a handwriting analyst, or is it very limited?

The market is ripe, but you have to sell yourself like any business. For example, there is plenty of work for dry cleaners, but some become rich and some shut down. It's up to you.

• I sometimes forget to cross my t's and dot my i's. What does this mean?

Forgetting to cross your t's or dot your i's is a sign of NOT paying attention to detail. This is also called absentmindedness. Do you know where you left your car keys? I'm wondering about the correlation between handwriting analysis and the Myers-Briggs personality typing system.

• Are you able to identify personality type based on handwriting analysis?

Good question. You can identify personality, that's the whole premise behind handwriting analysis. However, the language isn't identical to the other standard tests, which vary among themselves. I did an informal test between the MMPI and handwriting analysis in 1989 with an outstanding result. The correlation was over 3.0, which is very high (publishable). Since it wasn't formal, the psychologist I was working with couldn't publish it. There are strong correlations between the M-B and the handwriting personality styles, but I've never read a book that "does" the cross-correlations. I would assume if you know both test methods well, you could figure it out. One graphologist told me that if the trait is in the handwriting, then it's a reality; another said it's possible to carry only the trait and never act on it. Please let me know your thoughts on this. The latter is correct. You have to weigh all the factors to predict "action," and even then it takes timing and opportunity before someone acts on it. The traits increase the risk factor.

• When a person is writing about something they like, such as football, or a sport, or even chess or gambling, is there any way to determine if they are good at this by reading the traits?

No. You will be able to determine their level of optimism and emotional intensity for the activity, but it doesn't really vary that much simply by a single word.

• Can you find out what job one might excel at by graphology traits?

Yes, it can be very helpful. It is a very common use for this science.

• Some people's handwriting looks alike. Is it really?

No, although general appearance may appear similar, no two people have exactly the same handwriting. Once you start analyzing the many varieties of strokes, you realize that the overall "appearance" of a handwriting sample can be deceptive and that most handwriting samples have glaring differences. Based on the results of my handwriting analysis, I have some personality traits that I would like to rid myself of.

• What is the best method for changing myself? Is changing my handwriting the only way?

First, congratulations on realizing you can change yourself and improve your life. The realization that you are responsible for your own happiness is the first BIG STEP most people never realize. Now, the process of change can be slow or fast. There are systems for change that are slow and painful, but effective. For example, hypnosis can help someone stop smoking in just 2 hours. (I've seen it hundreds of times.)
However, there thousands of doctors prescribing 'medication' to slowly and painfully quit smoking with 'the patch.' Both methods are effective in some cases.
For your own personal growth, I recommend a combination of these three powerful tools:

• Handwriting Analysis for diagnosis and Grapho-therapy for key personalitytraits
• NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) for changing belief systems, habits, and deep rooted fears. NLP has been proven to cure phobias in less than an hour. (You must find a great practitioner in order for this tool to be effective.)
• Hypnosis and Time-Line Therapy. This tool is found in a counseling environment where you go 'back in time' to erase and change limiting beliefs and change yourself at the core level. Now, all tools can work. Some are more appropriate than others. Many have less to learn than others. Decide which method is best for you. I've used ALL OF THEM to make myself into the man I am today.

• How does Grapho-therapy work?

A new psychological technique uses the child's own handwriting to program behavior. The latest breakthrough using the 100-year-old science of handwriting analysis has been developed to reprogram the unconscious mind. This new techique, called Grapho-therapy , is based on the two credible sciences of Handwriting Analysis and Neuro-linquistic Programming. This new workbook for kids is the first time this powerful technique has been available to children. The results you will witness are simply phenomenal.
In a nutshell, your child simply practices specific handwriting strokes each day until they become a habit. As your child works through each day of the 30-day workbook, new neuro-connections are formed in the brain while a new muscular movement is being taught to the hand. At the same time, on the conscious level, questions are being answered about life, family, money, the future, creating a new foundation of what is possible in the world. All the while, unconsciously through the handwriting changes, new behavior patterns are being formed. Your child will be discovering new ideas of what is possible while establishing strong internal beliefs about his/her self-worth and place in this world.